Tag: The Royal We

The first and most important step in writing The Royal We was obviously creating our central characters — fleshing out Nick, Bex, Lacey, Freddie, the friends and enemies they make. But we also needed a Queen. And she needed a family. So we needed to change history.

We’re frequently asked why, in the face of that obstacle, we didn’t just set the book in a country we invented out of whole cloth. For whatever reason, that never crossed our minds. The Royal We needed to feel grounded, because at its crux is the push and pull between an ordinary person and her extraordinary situation, and the potential sacrifice of one for the other. Her world therefore had to be relatable. Familiar. She had to be walking the streets of a real city so that the reader could truly put themselves in her shoes, and empathize with the divide between where she came from and where she went. But more importantly, a huge part of the story is Nick’s destiny. He is going to be king. And that reality, and the burden it puts on him, has so much more heft when the reader brings into the story a knowledge of what that means. Socially, politically, even just terrestrially. In the wonderful FitzOsbournes trilogy by Michelle Cooper, about the family that rules the fictional island of Montmaray off the coast of the UK, an imaginary country works because it’s not REALLY about that; at its core the trilogy is the story of a close-knit group of kids who grew up in bizarre isolation, and then had the sanctity of their unit threatened by the various dangers of World War II (and in fact, even that trilogy eventually forsakes Montmaray for England’s richer tapestry). Those books explore what happens when the world encroaches on you. The Royal We is the reverse, a story about a girl who encroaches on a world. Bex falls in love with a man who just so happens to have another marriage in the hopper — to his birthplace — that is bigger than anyone could possibly imagine. She chose England the first time with just the weight of her own desires and expectations at stake, but when she chose it again, it was a heavier decision. Using the UK in this situation gives readers an innate understanding of just how big a deal, and how explosive a pressure-cooker, that choice is.

Besides, let’s face it, setting the book in London gave us ample and irresistible chances to color the story with actual landmarks, traditions, and references to Henry VIII. Sold.

Creating our fictional Lyons dynasty, however, wasn’t as simple as just pulling Queen Eleanor’s name out of a hat and then making up the rest as we went. That’s a quick way to make a tangled web that won’t unravel. Offhand mentions of random royal relatives would start to step on each other, and risked disconnecting readers from a world where the pieces not only didn’t seem to fit together, but felt like they were pulled from different puzzles. What we had to do was, in essence, our homework. Like using scratch paper in math to work out a problem so that you can fill in the right answer on your exam, even if your teacher never gets to marvel at how you arrived there. We knew we wouldn’t be able to show our work via a full and lengthy Lyons timeline at the front of The Royal We — in our first draft, our attempt accounted for a full five Microsoft Word pages, so we had to slice-and-dice — but in order to thread our narrative with allusions to Eleanor’s ancestors, every reference had to ring accurate. If it didn’t feel true to us, it wouldn’t feel true to the reader.

The trick became tweaking events in the UK’s actual monarchical timeline so that it afforded us exactly the right amount of space. Cut it too close, and we’d cross streams with the Windsors of today; erase too much, and we’d wipe out crucial elements of what makes the UK what it is. We wanted some room to create our own rulers with big romances and zany deaths, but we had to do it without abundance of real Edwards and Georges in the way — yet also without losing too much of Britain’s fabric, or London’s architecture and landmarks. Delete Victoria, and it deletes Albert, which zaps out Royal Albert Hall and the gargantuan golden monument to him that she built after he died. Poof: one grand romantic gesture stricken from the record. It’s a domino effect. Besides, we were already contending with minutiae like the fact that our characters would refer to Queen Elizabeth I as simply Queen Elizabeth, because the regnal number isn’t added until there is more than one, and of course, in The Royal We there is no QEII. In short, there was only so much of the past we could twist without making pretzels of our brains and of British history.

In the end, we chose to keep Queen Victoria, but make two critical changes to her immediate successor(s) — we prematurely eliminated a son, and revived a grandson — so that it created a completely fresh crew (and eventually gave her the regnal number we took away from Elizabeth I).

Oh, and a word about names: We strove to christen our characters in a way that was at least somewhat in keeping with history — we threaded in connections for a few where we needed them, like as middle names, or Frederick and Richard being actual ducal family names for the one we revived for Queen Victoria II’s husband — but which didn’t step on the names of current royals or on any of the kings we eradicated. So, for example, we couldn’t invent a new George, because he’d have been George V, which easily would be confused with the ACTUAL George V that we had eliminated from the timeline. Ditto making a new fictional Edward VIII. Further, we couldn’t invent a Charles, because he’d have been King Charles III in our book, which is the same number the real Charles may be someday (unless he styles himself George VIII or something) and that would create similar confusion in the future. And William and Harry/Henry we stayed away from for obvious reasons, although with William, it’s also the same monarchical issue of not wanting to make up a William V that would someday cross streams with the eventual William V (if that’s what he chooses for himself). Finally, we realized hearing the names of ANY of the present-day crew would take you out of the book because it’s so hard not to picture their faces, so we struck Edward, George, Andrew, Anne, Elizabeth, and Philip from the list. Fun fact: Prince Edwin was originally named Prince George, until we read through the first draft and realized that every time we saw his name we pictured the new little moppet and his CHEEKS.

Here’s our timeline, created with help from my research star of a sister, including children, spouses, deaths, and other historical notes explaining certain decisions we made. There are NO book spoilers herein, but there are in the comments, so beware if you’ve not read the entire book.

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“I might be Cinderella today, but I dread who they’ll think I am tomorrow. I guess it depends on what I do next.”

American Rebecca Porter was never one for fairy-tales. Her twin sister, Lacey, has always been the romantic who fantasized about glamour and royalty, fame and fortune. Yet it’s Bex who seeks adventure at Oxford and finds herself living down the hall from Prince Nicholas, Great Britain’s future king. And when Bex can’t resist falling for Nick, the person behind the prince, it propels her into a world she did not expect to inhabit, under a spotlight she is not prepared to face.

Dating Nick immerses Bex in ritzy society, dazzling ski trips, and dinners at Kensington Palace with him and his charming, troublesome brother Freddie. But the relationship also comes with unimaginable baggage: hysterical tabloids, Nick’s sparkling and far more suitable ex-girlfriends, and a royal family whose private life is much thornier and more tragic than anyone on the outside knows. The pressures are almost too much to bear, as Bex struggles to reconcile the man she loves with the monarch he’s fated to become.

Which is how she gets into trouble.

Now, on the eve of the wedding of the century, Bex is faced with whether everything she’s sacrificed for love — her career, her home, her family, maybe even herself – will have been for nothing.

Spanning nearly a decade, THE ROYAL WE is a richly imagined, emotionally compelling novel that examines, with warmth and wit, what truly happens after your prince has com

“The characters should all be familiar: the heir to the British throne, his mischievous younger brother, his granny and the pretty commoner he meets in college. But in this version by bloggers Cocks and Morgan (a.k.a. the Fug Girls), the girl is American. Nick and Bex’s love story is so fun and dishy, you’ll hope for a sequel–with royal babies.“—People

#3 on Entertainment Weekly‘s Must List, in theApril 3, 2015 issue

“Lively and quippy…a breezy, juicy novel that’s like The Princess Diaries with fewer made-up countries and more sex—the kind of book you can imagine Pippa sneaking into Kensington Palace.” – Entertainment Weekly

“Readers should prepare to lose their hearts to The Royal We, a loving satire that is scandalously funny and wonderfully romantic.” – BookPage

“Pages of biting humor and breathtaking glamour rewrite a fairy tale into something more satisfying than a stack of tabloids.” – Kirkus

“Cocks and Morgan tackled their first dip into mainstream fiction for adults and nailed it. The Royal We is a ‘wonderful tale of young love, peppered with animated characters, difficult hardships and self-discovery.” — RT Book Reviews

“This delightful spin on the story of Prince William and Kate Middleton is the perfect beachy, weekend read for anyone who loves love stories with a healthy dose of humor…. Part fairy tale, part cautionary tale, the novel is pure fun from start to finish.” — Library Reads (Top 10 Pick for April, 2015)

“The Royal Weis full of love and humor, and delicious in too many ways to mention in one little blurb. I read this novel as quickly as I could, relishing any few minutes I had to turn back to its pages. An absolute delight.”

“A joy from start to finish. The Royal We is that rare novel that makes you think, makes you cry, and is such fun to read that you’ll want to clear your schedule until you’ve turned the final page. But be warned–Cocks and Morgan have created a world so rich, a romance so compelling, and characters so funny and alive, that you’ll be terribly sad to see them go.”

“The Royal We is as engrossing and deeply satisfying as any royal wedding documentary, and it’s a thousand times more fun, from the fairy tale to the inevitable foibles. You will want Bex Porter to be your best friend. You will feel the same way about Cocks and Morgan, who are warm, witty, hilarious, and moving in their depiction of a very complicated relationship indeed.”

We use this room in The Royal We, and it’s one of my absolute favorites at Windsor Castle, made even dreamier because of this state dinner. The best bit is that all the crests on the ceiling belong to the Garter Knights, and are numbered so you can look up to whom it belongs. If someone is disgraced, the crest is covered or removed, but the number remains so that their ignominy is preserved. In other words, TAKE THAT, jerks.

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So, I love royal swag. I LOVE it. When I was a little girl, I had the Chuck and Diana paper dolls and it’s only gotten worse from there. When Heather and I were in England in January researching The Royal We, we both bought so much stuff that we literally had to pack additional bags home. You are welcome, British tourist industry! We have NO SELF CONTROL. I bought a Buckingham Palace soap dish, people. (In fairness, who could resist having a soap dish from Buckingham Palace? Not me.) Anyway, this has all culminated over the past few years into my collecting Royal Mugs. The rules for my collection are very specific. Although I appreciate both extremely beautiful and super cheesy mugs, they have to commemorate something or, as far as I am concerned, they do not count.So far, I have one mug for every day of the week. I have been putting them on my Instagram, but then I decided that I need these things chronicled for posterity.

(Click on each picture if you want more steaming-hot mug info SEE WHAT I DID THERE.)

This mug commemorates William and Kate’s engagement and I LOVE IT. Heather bought it for me for Christmas and it is probably my favorite of my mugs, although really that’s like asking me which of my children is my favorite. Perhaps salient note: I have no actual children.

This is not vintage, but it is the official tankard commemorating the Queen’s coronation. I got it at Buckingham Palace.

This mug commemorates the birth of Prince George: aren’t the cupids subtle? Heather brought this back for me from a trip she took to England with her family because she’s the best and also because I think I commanded that she bring me back some mugs or else.

She ALSO brought me back this mug commemorating Prince George’s birth.

This one I bought for myself on Etsy, where people who collect royal commemorative mugs spend all their money. It celebrates Charles’s investiture in 1969 as Prince of Wales at Caernarfon Castle and I’m pretty sure the beautiful gold trim will one day give me blood poisoning.

This was the official Diamond Jubilee china. I bought one of these for myself and for myself in a frenzied Christmas late-night online shopping spree.

And this one is also a delight. My friend Eliza brought it back to me from a trip to England purposely because it is such a hilariously poor rendering of the Queen.

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We have some exciting news that we are thrilled to share with you. We have a new book coming your way, tentatively scheduled for spring of ’15. In the words of this morning’s announcement in Publishers’ Marketplace:

Creators of GoFugYourself.com Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan’s first adult novel THE ROYAL WE, about a young American woman who spends a semester abroad in England and falls in love with the man of her dreams — who happens to be the future King of England, a tale loosely inspired by the real-life courtship and marriage of Kate Middleton and Prince William, to Sara Weiss at Grand Central, by Brettne Bloom at Kneerim, Williams & Bloom (NA). Foreign rights: Danny Baror and Heather Baror; Dramatic Rights: Joe Veltre at Gersh.

More details to come as we know them, of course, but we’re having a great time writing THE ROYAL WE, and we hope you will all love reading it.